Dynamics of electrons and holes at surfaces

We present ab initio calculation results for electron–phonon (e–ph) contribution to hole lifetime broadening of the image surface state on Al(0 0 1). We show that e–ph coupling in this state is significantly stronger than in bulk Al at the Fermi level. It makes the e–ph decay channel very important in the formation of the hole decay in the surface state at image. We also present the results for e–e lifetime broadening in a quantum-well state in 1 ML K/Cu(1 1 1). We show that this contribution is not negligible and is much larger than that in a surface state on Ag(1 1 1).